I'm feeling well, other than pains in my collar bone, ribs and boob AND a slightly dodgy stomach. Stuff that if cancer hadn't occurred wouldn't occur to me to even register as pain or illness. Cancer, obviously, has made me a hypochondriac.
Anyway. I chipped a tooth last week. The dentist used to be my number one fear. Now he doesn't even register as a worry thanks to chemo. As I was about to go down Souf, I booked a dentists appointment for the Monday I got back. Having read something online about chemo patients and the dentist, I phoned the chemo ward to ask if I was OK to get dental treatment; best to have a blood test apparently.
Come Monday morning, I therefore dutifully trooped off to hell (aka the chemo day ward) to get tested. FBC (full blood count) was fine but I was told to phone in prior to going to the dentist to check the other tests were OK.
At 1, I rung and was put on hold for AGES. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing of the nurse from the phone, she returned and told me I was neutropenic. Neutro what? She explained this meant that my neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) were dangerously low leaving me open to infection. I said I was fine. She said it could be a dodgy test but not to go to the dentist.
I posted on the Breast Cancer Care site to ask what this meant. SCARY reply. Any temperature over 37.5 meant INSTANT trip to the hospital. Better avoid any infection then.
Bugger
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